'Scandal' recap, 'Flesh and Blood'

In "Flesh and Blood," the team must spring into action following a security breach on an all-new episode of "Scandal" airing Thursday, April 10, 2014 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. (ABC)

Lauren McEwenFor The Baltimore Sun

This week, things pick up shortly after we left off. Jake’s done choking Liv, but he isn’t done accusing her of treason. Everyone’s furious with her for breaking up B613, but as a couple of people pointed out on Twitter, can’t they just turn the computers back on? I’m confused.

Jake and Fitz are ganging up on Liv about B613. She’s shocked, since they both seemed to hate it, at one point. They both seem to be more upset that she’s allowed whatever Marie Wallace’s clients have planned to unfold six days before the election. If they call on the aboveground channels for defending the republic – Homeland Security, FBI, etc. – they will make Marie Wallace/Maya Pope a part of the public record, thereby making Fitz shooting down that plane way back when a part of the public record. Nope, says Cyrus.

Jake wants to B613 back together again, but Liv isn’t hearing it, because of the “sacrifices” she made. Of course, Jake this opportunity to bring up the fact that Liv slept with him in order to hack into his phone, as a part of the B613 Must Go plan. But really, we all know that Jake said that to get under Fitz’s skin. This is not the time to be childish.

They’re sure that Fitz is the target, because Adnan stole records that would allow them to know his every move. While Jake’s detailing the evidence, Fitz and Cyrus notice a familiar face: Marie Wallace’s bomb maker/lover, and decide to call in Eli/Rowan Pope. Messy.

Papa Pope strolls into OPA (the new acronym for P&A that Quinn gives us today) with James Brown’s “Super Bad” playing in the background and it is perfect. He IDs the guy as Dominic Bell, Maya Pope’s handler and a general bad guy.

Liv’s upset that Fitz plans on staying on the campaign trail. Rowan backs Liv’s advice, Fitz agrees to stay in the White House, but he does want to make it clear that Rowan isn’t Command again. Rowan scoffs at Fitz’s assertion that he is doing this for his country. This is personal, because Dominic ruined his life.

Charlie’s listening to numbers on that weird B613 station, waiting to hear instructions from Command. He’s also being passive aggressive because he still thinks that Quinn is loyal to “OPA.” So imagine his shock when the numbers tell him to be there.

When they arrive, the OPA conference room is already riddled with tension, which not even Charlie could break. His greeting Jake and Rowan with “Command. Other Command,” was actually hilarious though. Now if he would just be good for something and kill Quinn…

Jake makes a snarky remark about Rowan working at the Smithsonian and Rowan threatens to leave unless Jake goes. Of course, Liv chooses her dad over Jake, because she would choose a total stranger over Jake, which leads to another one of Jake’s reads.

Truncated version: No one walks away from B613 and Rowan hasn’t changed. He’ll make you feel safe and then “break your bones and step over your body on his way out.” Jake says he knows this because that’s what Rowan taught him to do.

Now for the most disturbing plot twist of this entire episode. Some unnamed girl at Little Jerry’s boarding school meets up with Leo Bergen, to discuss a scheme they’ve got planned. She wants to get into Harvard. Thankfully, his phone rings so we don’t have to hear what Leo wants, yet.

Senator Hightower, a champion of immigration reform, has died of a “heart attack.” Of course, Sally wants to deliver the eulogy, but so does Fitz. Hightower was his friend and Cyrus sees it as an opportunity. Hightower was Fitz’s friend, a hero and a Latino politician.

Fitz reminds him that they’re on lockdown and “somebody out there” wants Fitz dead. “You think it’s just someone out there?” says my favorite guest star of the night, Drunk Mellie. “Olivia tells him to stay put, so he stays. Just tell me what y’all decide. Either way, I gotta stand by my man,” Mellie slurs sarcastically. Mellie even does the drunk thing better than Fitzgerald.

Huck, Quinn and Charlie are debating the best way to go about finding Dominic. Huck wants to spy and Charlie wants to use the intel they got from surveillance.

Fitz calls Liv to complain about not being able to go to the funeral and to remind her that Sally’s still campaigning, taking the votes from NOW, Emily’s List and the NAACP. Liv insists that the NAACP won’t support Sally because obviously. Fitz insists that they could, whining, “I’m telling you they could.” Liv’s response? “I’m telling you, I’m black.” Tears.

Fitz keeps pushing it, which makes Liv remember the date. It’s the four-year anniversary of Big Jerry’s death. That, coupled with the knowledge that he’s never actually won an election has Fitz feeling insecure.

He also “misses” Liv and is upset that Liv’s sleeping with Jake, because he literally hates the idea of any of his many women being unfaithful to him.

Fitz is doing satellite interviews with local news stations across the country, while Cyrus, Mellie and Andrew are doing some last-minute phone banking. OPA’s bustling, too. Just as Charlie and Quinn tell Liv that Dominic is “in the wind” Huck comes in and drops dude on the floor, bound and gagged.

Back to this gross Little Jerry storyline. In an attempt to conduct a paternity test that would prove that Fitz isn’t Jerry’s dad, Leo’s bribed Jerry’s girlfriend into stealing some of his DNA. Of course, she translates that to having sex with Jerry and stealing the condom. For his semen. In exchange for an acceptance letter from Harvard. And Yale. My head just exploded. This is so gross.

Anyway, she pulls it off, because no one ever taught Little Jerry to beware of people who steal things like condoms.

Rowan instructs Huck to torture Dominic for answers, which of course, Liv isn’t allowing. Liv keeps asking Rowan if she knows Dominic from somewhere, but he’s dodging the question. This time, saved by a call from Leo Bergen, who wants him to steal some of Fitz’s DNA for the paternity test.

Of course, Rowan’s “loyal” to Liv now, so he tells her what’s going on. Turns out, Mellie asked the WH doctor for a paternity test for Little Jerry. It evolves into what I hope is the first of many showdowns between Liv and Mellie.

Olivia first assumes that Andrew may be the father. She’s sure that Mellie did this so close the election on purpose because she’s not an idiot and she’s not reckless. She’s right. “I want to see his head in the fire and I want to see him burn,” says Mellie Da Gawd.

She’s tired of living this lie for 15 years while she’s given Fitz everything. It’s her turn. Finally, she lets it slip that Big Jerry was the father. Somehow, Liv seems to understand that it was rape. Mellie snaps out of it, demanding Liv clean up the mess, get her a paternity test and never tell Fitz.

Jake’s waiting for David in his office. He wants to use facial recognition software to track down Marie Wallace. Why has no one done this already? Ivan’s already planting the bomb.

Harrison’s doing inexplicable financial stuff, again, and Huck’s had no luck with Dominic. Finally, he tells Liv who Dominic is: the only man Marie ever loved. He’s going to interrogate him via Russian roulette unless Marie tells him the location of the bomb, while Huck tracks the call. Of course, she doesn’t tell him and hangs up before they can trace her signal. So, he kills Dominic because he was frustrated and he wanted to, anyway.

Abby grabs a bit of Dominic’s hair and they pretend it’s Fitz’s, bribing the tech to make the results say Jerry and Fitz are a match.

Meanwhile, Liv’s being a simp, calling Jake to cry about how she’s confused and she doesn’t know why she’s calling him, but she “felt something” when they slept together. Just pick a guy. Any guy but Fitz, though.

She’s also stressed out because her dad murdered her mom’s lover and who knows if Marie has ever loved anyone. To make it worse, she finally remembers where she knew Dominic from … they’d been booed up at the playground while five-year-old Liv was on the monkey bars. Liv wonders if it’s nice to be emotionless because she’s finally realizing that Fitz isn’t the only man in existence.

Sally’s in front of Grant in the polls because he’s been ghost on the campaign trail. Fitz demands that Cyrus get him to Ohio for a rally.

At OPA, Rowan assures Liv that everything is fine. She’s really mad about him killing a guy in her office, and all. He apologizes, but he’s waiting a while to kill Dominic. Basically, because he and Liv’s entire lives have been lies because Dominic instructed Marie to marry him for access to info.

She calls Cyrus with an update, and overhears chopper blades. She freaks since they don’t know where the bomb is, but Rowan tells her to go with him. Marie won’t kill Fitz if it means killing her, too.

Harrison’s found Adnan’s lair and figured out where the bomb is, but before he can make the call, Adnan pops up with a gun. They’d planned to bomb the Ohio high school where Fitz is campaigning.

Charlie and Huck are arguing what to do about Dominic’s body, and Quinn finally gets annoyed. Huck’s still waiting in the parking deck for Huck, which leads to them having sex, and it’s really gross. Charlie doesn’t even pop up and kill them all.

But what does happen is that Marie Wallace comes to OPA. Rowan calls Liv, telling her they’ve got Marie trapped. She gets back to the office to find a choking Rowan riddled with bullet holes. Guess we finally figured out which one of Liv’s parents is the scariest.

Meanwhile, David and Jake figured out Marie’s plan. They moved the bomb from the school to Senator Hightower’s funeral. He tells Cyrus to warn everyone, so that most of the politicians in the nation don’t die. But Cyrus? He decides to hold Fitz back from the funeral and let everyone else (most importantly, Sally) blow up. Guess he’s done grieving.

QUICK HITS

• Harrison’s one-on-one with Rowan should have been way longer. The fact that Harrison called him “Papa Pope” to his face and still lived — I want a spin-off series with Rowan and Harrison, butting heads on how to protect the republic and arguing over who has the best suits.

• There’s a moment when Quinn, Abby and Harrison have a little back and forth about the difference between OPA and B613. Mainly, that they don’t kill people at OPA. Quinn insists that OPA destroys people’s lives. Valid, but I couldn’t help but remember Old Abby and how she would have ripped Quinn to shreds for that comment.

• Liv promises to get Mellie that paternity test, and it’s a moment of solidarity that really gives me hope. It’ll probably last two seconds.